Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Gun Auction Thoughts

Assume I'm administering an estate which contains among other things approximately 200 guns. Somewhere around 20 are vintage collectible Winchesters and Colts. Somewhere around 100 are NIB guns, many Winchester levers from the post 64 era. The remainder are just guns. Nice ones but not collectible. Very few are what Id call junk. Mostly rifles and handguns, not so many shotguns.

Assume the following facts:
They're going as a batch
Some gun shop/auctioneer/auction house will be engaged.
No one involved is going to do the work of selling/shipping.
The beneficiary of the receipts from the firearms is a defined charity.
Local auctioneer charges 15%, no buyers premium.
National auctioneer charges 20% and a 17.5% buyers premium.
Bulk sale to a gun shop incurs no percentage.

Tell me how you'd proceed in order to maximize the return to the beneficiary.

Seems like a no-brainer.

Local auctioneer is a defined price.

National auctioneer is rape.

Local gun show will want them for 50cents on the dollar or less.

Local auctioneer. You might not get the big money for the collectibles, but you'll still get good value for them.

Believe me do the local auctioneer and make sure its well advertised. Also, insist that the auctioneer or an assistant knows firearms well enough to do a good plug for each one as they come up.

Local auctions has been the way around here for about 10 years now. Got 3-4 that handle all aspects including web auction, transfer and shipping. People figured out that Cabelas, Scheels and Bass pro were rip offs.

Interesting thoughts.

Do you think that local auctions find the top of the market routinely? Or do the national auctions simply create a higher market and keep more of it for themselves?

Internet auctions have raised their prices into the ridiculous range. Sellers lose a huge portion of the value right there.

200 is enough guns to be worth looking for a bigger dealer willing to travel. He will earn his money by knowing his markets for the different grades, ie. Collector pieces vs shooters. Consigning locally should be a better option, but locally here the shops have become sex offenders...

With those facts being assumed, a local auction is probably best. If they're well established, they'll know their market better than you, and they'll know how to gear their marketing for the auction.


If it was me doing it, I'd pull the collectables out and sell them separately, and then sell the rest as a lot.

I don’t believe the buyers premium comes out of the 20% the auction house charges, correct? Meaning, if the auction ends at 5K, the estate gets 4K, the buyer pays 5850?

For some of the more desirable items, I think the national exposure from one of the reputable auction houses would bring top dollar - and probably more than make up for the fees.

Here is a site I've bought a few guns on.The seller list the gun for the price they want to sell the gun for.The listing price for the seller seems reasonable. https://www.gunsinternational.com/sell-guns-online/membership-fees.cfm

You're correct on the money, AK.

I'm a bit concerned that taking out the choice pieces and offering them separately might reduce the total interest and total take. Its an interesting conundrum.

What about one of the GunBroker auction facilitators, like lock stock and barrel?

I am not aware of such a creature

A friend does this for a living he charges 12% , he lists it on gun broker and guns international simultaneously.

You ship them to him or drop them off .

I would make a detailed list of the firearms, their condition, extras etc. then I would assign a high value and low value to each. After that start shopping it to some gun shops and auction houses.
First person I would contact is Mark Blote (First Stop Gun in Rapid City, South Dakota).

Assuming you're the administrator makes me assume you need to get fair value for them and so some due diligence is probably required.

I might consider pulling out the high dollar firearms and shopping both high dollar and low dollar separately.

There are a bunch out there. I know that the one I mentioned has a good reputation. They basically come, take everything, put it on gunbroker, charge you a percentage, and then reimburse you minus their fee. I believe their percentage is in line with what you have been talking about.

That is a deal and a half if he does a good job with the listings.

I tell him what I want, he lists it and I have never had to drop my price. He researches the crap out of pricing before he puts it up.

The local auctioneer is probably the best option IF, and that is a big IF, he is experienced and good at taking quality pictures and adding some description. Good quality pictures can easily add 50% to the selling prices in an online auction. With 200 guns a live auction could draw a big crowd at the right time also, but no one seems to do that anymore.

Jerry

I do not think a live auction is a good option here.

A local auction near here recently sold around 200 guns. It was in a small town within a 2 hr drive of several fairly large population centers. Some fairly good guns were sold but not nearly the quality you are dealing with. The guns all went very high and my brother came home empty handed. Good guns will bring good money at auction as long as people can get there. SD is not the most populated state, so I’d want to be near one of the larger cities. The idea of an internet broker also doesn’t sound bad. Good guns bring good money there, too. Also, an accurate appraisal is not always easy to get. A well attended auction settles this issue as well. An item is worth what someone is willing to pay, and money speaks louder than words. Good luck with this and bless you for helping out the heirs.